


Your Words Like Knives

by winchesherlokied



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluffball Hinata Shouyou, He's also a bit of a moron in this one, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Kageyama Tobio/ Yamaguchi Tadashi, Protective Kageyama Tobio, Slight Angst?, Tsukki is mean, Yamaguchi Tadashi is Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 19:47:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15250716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winchesherlokied/pseuds/winchesherlokied
Summary: Tsukishima has always been a bit of a smartass. Getting a rise out of people was something he did subconsciously at this point in his life, be it from his teammates or his boyfriend. But little does he know that a certain someone is slowly starting to take his quips way more seriously than he intends them to be.Basically, Tsukki says mean things, Hinata is sad and Yamaguchi just wants to knock some sense into his dinosaur of a friend and go on a date with Kageyama.





	Your Words Like Knives

**Author's Note:**

> A massive 'Thank You' to my awesome buddy four_o_eyed_o_nerd for their help with this one. They really helped me when i got stuck and I cannot thank them enough!

The Karasuno school gym was full of life as the volleyball team went about their practice with full gusto. Hinata and Kageyama were off practicing receives for once though it did require a little bit of glaring on Daichi’s part.  
“Boke! You’re doing it all wrong! You need to widen your stance! Idiot”.  
“Shut up Bakageyama! You’re the one who can’t teach properly!”  
The squabbling continued as they continued practicing.  
“I can’t believe I’m saying this but I have to agree with the King, you’re horrible at this Shorty”, the duo turned towards Tsukishima, Shouyou smiling brightly at him till what Tsukishima said hit him.  
“KEI! You’re **_my_** boyfriend! You’re supposed to be on my side. You mustn’t like me if you’re siding with Bakageyama”, Shouyou whined.  
“Hmm, maybe I don’t”, smirked Kei as he walked off to continue practicing blocks, not realizing how Hinata’s smile faltered for a moment before he once again turned towards Kageyama and yelled at him to continue practicing. Kageyama had felt something was wrong with Hinata but he couldn’t pinpoint anything and figured he must have just imagined it.

 

************************************************************************************

 

“Ahhh I can’t believe I almost failed the English test”, groaned Shouyou as he plopped down next to Kageyama, “I actually studied for it this time!”. Kageyama grunted out his acknowledgement, having suffered a similar fate. He saw Hinata visibly perk up and turned to see Yamaguchi and Tsukishima walk towards them to join them for lunch, blushing himself when he caught Yamaguchi smiling at him.  
“Shouyou! How did your test go? I remember you were worried about it”, asked Yamaguchi, smiling sweetly as he sat down next to Kageyama, their thighs brushing which resulted in Kageyama developing a full-fledged blush which he tried to hide in his lunch box.  
“Not so good Tadashi. I barely passed but the worst part is that I stayed up all night studying for it”, Shouyou sighed as he showed his test papers to his Kei.  
“Wow Shouyou, I didn’t even know it was possible to mess up this bad. Are you sure you even studied the correct portion?”, Kei commented as he continued going through the papers in his hand, not realizing the effect his words were having on the boy next to him. Yamaguchi noticed with increasing concern as a hurt expression took over Hinata’s face as Kei rambled on, “ I mean, if I wanted to hurt myself, I would jump down to your IQ-…”  
“Tsukki!”, Yamaguchi interrupted sharply, and changed the topic before his idiot of a friend could make the situation any worse, not for a second believing the smile that was once again on Hinata’s face. Even Kageyama was frowning.

Shouyou just tried to keep smiling, Kei was just kidding, he shouldn’t let his usual taunts affect him, he should come up with a retort instead like he always did! Kei was just kidding…right? 

 

************************************************************************************

Hinata’s nightmares used to include three things; the first was a tall, looming wall over the net, preventing him from looking at the other side. The second was of serving a ball into the back of Kageyama’s head…again, and the third was of Nishinoya senpai being taller than him. But never, not even in his wildest dream did he ever think that he would be adding the next one to this list. For all their worth, the other three paled in comparison to the nightmare he was currently having. The hurtful words his boyfriend was spouting as he stood paralyzed in his place, unable to even beg the boy he loved to not leave him, were tearing his heart to bits. As Hinata sat up in his bed, nearly in tears, he thought of how he never imagined he’d be adding Tsukishima leaving him to that list. Hell, he had felt a bit insecure when he started dating the boy. Why would someone like Tsukishima want to date someone like him? He couldn’t help but feel overjoyed when the blond boy had asked him out. But now, he was back to feeling insecure. Did Kei mean all the things he said? He wouldn’t be wrong. Oh God what if Kei was just going out with him because he pitied him or something? No no he wouldn’t do something like that but what if Kei started hating him like he did in the nightmare? Shouyou wasn’t sure he’d be able to deal with it if that happened.

Over the next few days the entire team noticed that there was something off with their resident ball of sunshine. He just wasn’t…shining anymore but there was nothing obviously wrong with him so they let it be. Kageyama realized though, he noticed that while Hinata was still smiling, these smiles weren’t reach his eyes like they used to and he couldn’t understand why his best friend had stopped bantering with him like they used to. He wanted to do something but he didn’t know what was wrong and Hinata wouldn’t say anything so for now, all he could do was wait.

*************************************************************************************

Shouyou and Kei were sitting in the blond boy’s room as Kei tried to help his boyfriend with some lessons and homework he found tough. Shouyou had been struggling with a problem for a while now, he understood it when Kei explained it but every time he tried to attempt it himself he would get more and more confused.  
“Sheesh Shouyou, with your height being as it is I was never sure if you passed the fifth grade or not and now I’m really starting to think that might be true”, the silence that followed worried Kei, he was used to Shouyou responding to his teasing with his own quips but over the past few weeks Kei had noticed how Shouyou wasn’t responding to him anymore and seemed quite down. Wanting to give it one more shot he said something he would very soon come to regret. “Sometimes I wonder why I’m even dating you Shorty”, he said jokingly but the response he got was not something he had planned for. A choked up voice asked him, “Yeah, why are you dating me?”, and he froze when he saw the hurt look on Shouyou’s face when the boy finally lifted his face from the book he had buried it in to face the blond boy, eyes filled with tears that were on the verge of spilling over. But before Kei could even react, his the whirlwind of a boyfriend had already collected his things and run out of Kei’s room while Kei just sat there frozen, unable to get that anguished look on Shouyou’s face out of his mind.  
It was only when Akiteru barged into his room a few moments later, absolutely panicking and asking Kei if he knew why Shouyou had just run out of their house seemingly in tears. Kei couldn’t imagine what had brought about the entire situation. He stayed up late hoping that Shouyou would respond to his calls and messages but then figured that his boyfriend must have been tired and fallen asleep since they had been having early morning practice and the orange-haired boy would need to wake up very early to bike it all the way to school in time for practice. He decided that he would ask Shouyou about it the moment he saw him the next day and fell into a restless sleep, desperately hoping to resolve the matter as soon as possible.

*********************************************************************************** 

Tsukishima tried his best to talk to Hinata the next morning but the shorter boy always ended up at the opposite end of the gym from where Tsukishima was, either arguing with Kageyama and yelling at him for one more toss or practicing receives with Noya and before he knew it, it was time for their classes and was disappointed when he realized that he would have to wait till they met up for lunch on the roof. Lunch came but there was no Hinata to accompany it. After-school practice was the same. Whenever he tried approaching Hinata, the shorter boy would land up on the other side of the gym but this time Tsukishima saw how Hinata actively trying to avoid him. The realization hit him hard. ‘He’s avoiding me. Why? Had something happened? Had he-‘, his stream of thought was broken when he saw Suga and Kageyama approaching him with matching grim looks. 

“Tsukishima-“, Suga started but was interrupted by a livid Kageyama.

“You asshole! How can you call yourself his boyfriend when you treat him like this?”, he said, almost in Tsukishima’s face and Suga had to act fact and hold the blue-eyed boy back before he did decked Tsukishima in the face.  
“Calm down Kageyama, let me handle this”, said Suga as he placed himself between the two boys. “Treat him like what? What did I do? Suga-san what are you guys talking about? Do you know why Shouyou’s upset?”, asked Tsukishima, almost desperate at this point and definitely confused. “You really don’t know why Tsukishima?”, asked Suga with an astonished tone.  
“No! Can someone please tell me what’s going on?”, asked the blond boy, now annoyed. “And here I thought that you were supposed to be smart”, scoffed Kageyama while Suga now gave him a pitying look.  
“You know what? Do us all a favor, don’t go near Hinata until you figure it out”, said Kageyama as he walked away. “I’m sorry Tsukishima but you need to figure this one out yourself”, said Suga with a smalls smile and walked away leaving Tsukishima frustrated. There was only one person who could help him now, “Yamaguchi!”.

************************************************************************************ 

“Okay, now tell me what happened from the beginning”, said Yamaguchi as he got comfortable on his bed. He had an inkling about the reason for which Tsukki had urgently asked him to meet up about and now, as they sat in his room while his best friend narrated the day of the study-date, his assumption was confirmed. “Tsukki, for someone who’s so smart, you can be a down-right idiot. Did you ever think that you’re hurting Shouyou’s feelings with all your smartass comments?”, he said, not wanting to beat around the bush and hoping to drill some sense into the idiot’s head. 

“What? Why would he be hurt by that? I say stuff like that all the time even before we were dating! To everyone! I say stuff like that to you all the time, you know I don’t mean it! Okay maybe I mean it when I’m talking to Kageyama…and Tanaka-san, but not you guys!”.

“Tsukki, you know that and I know that, but does he? You said it yourself, you’ve been saying stuff like this even before you guys started dating. What if he never realized that you didn’t mean any of it?”

“What but why would he think that way?”

“Tsukki that boy is more sensitive than your damn touchscreen, he cried when he saw lost ducklings and then proceeded to help them reunite with their mother and then cried even more when he realized that he might not see them again. So get your head out of your ass and go apologize.”

“Crap you’re right”, said Tsukishima as he thought of the day he had to handle his nearly inconsolable boyfriend who cried for hours because he had to part with the ducklings and ‘what if they get lost again Kei?’ , and cringed when he recalled how he had called the boy a moron hoping to get him engaged in their usual banter and distract him but not realizing how he must have hurt the boy instead which could have quite possibly been the reason he didn’t stop crying.

“God I’m such an idiot!”

“I’m glad you realized”

“What do I do Yamaguchi? He’ll never forgive me. He _shouldn’t_ forgive me, I don’t deserve it.”

“Tsukki we both know he’ll forgive you in a heartbeat. But you better make sure you try and earn his forgiveness or you’ll have bigger problems to deal with”, the accompanying smile that Yamaguchi gave sent a shiver down Tsukishima’s spine. He pitied anyone who thought Yamaguchi was some sweet little angel; the boy could put the devil to shame when he was angered.  
Yamaguchi smiled as he saw his friend run out of his room, glad that he had been able to drill some sense into the boy’s head. Now if only he could get a certain blue-eyed idiot to ask him out he thought and sighed.

************************************************************************************ 

Hinata felt guilty after avoiding Kei the entire day but he was so sure that the boy had finally realized that he could do better than Shouyou and was going to break up with him. He knew what he was doing was stupid, why avoid the inevitable? But he just thinking of his nightmare becoming a reality made him physically sick. Kageyama had been so supportive when he’d finally managed to coerce the problem out of him, keeping him company the entire day and helping him avoid Kei. Shouyou was so deep in thought that he did not notice Kei standing at his doorstep and by the time he did, it was too late to run away. ‘I couldn’t avoid it forever’, he thought, bracing himself for the words that would surely break his heart.  
“Shouyou”,gasped Kei as he rushed towards the boy and enveloped him in a tight hug, “I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry Shouyou. Please forgive me. I’m sorry I hurt you but I promise I’ll never do it again so please don’t leave me”  
Shouyou just remained stunned, unable to comprehend the situation, “So you’re not breaking up with me?”, he asked with a small voice and Kei’s heart broke when he saw the tear-filled eyes looking at him. 

“What? No NO! Shouyou, why would I break up with you?”

“I wouldn’t blame you. I’m not that smart and I know I can be annoying at times and-“

“No Shouyou, stop right there, I am so sorry that I made you feel that way. I never meant any of those things. I just took for granted the fact that people know I’m joking just to get a rise out of them. I never realized that maybe that wasn’t the case. I never realized how much I hurt you with my stupid comments that I meant as jokes and it scares me that I almost lost you because of my stupidity”, he pulled Shouyou towards the door and picked up a box and handed it to the shorter boy, “I um brought you some strawberry shortcake as an apology. I know I need to do much much more but I thought I’d start from here. I just- I love you so much and I will never be able to forgive myself for hurting you ”, he said, bracing himself for some yelling that he was sure he deserved but was not prepared to catch the tiny body that had launched itself at him though he somehow managed to balance himself and held on tight to the now sobbing mess in his arms. “ I love you too Kei and I forgive you okay? So don’t be so hard on yourself”, said Shouyou, staring determinedly into Kei’s eyes after saying the last part despite having tears running down his face and Kei gave into the overwhelming urge to kiss the beautiful boy in his arms. It was a soft, delicate kiss but it was filled with emotions and the two of them had large smiles on their faces when they finally broke apart.

*************************************************************************************

The two of them had relocated to Shouyou’s living room couch to continue their cuddle session and watch a movie. Shouyou had offered to split the cake with Kei, knowing it was the boy’s favourite and was stunned when his offer was denied because the cake was only meant for Shouyou and Kei wanted him to have the entire thing. He was overwhelmingly happy now that their issue had been resolved but his insecurities were not something that were going to go away anytime soon. He couldn’t help but ask Kei if he was happy dating him. “Shouyou I love you more than Strawberry Shortcake and I love strawberry shortcake more than I even love Akiteru. By the way, he got really freaked out after that day when you ran home. Before I came here he threatened me saying that I better take care of you and that if he was single he would have already stolen you away from me. As if that was ever going to happen”, he scoffed. “Kei, your brother is amazing and I’d date him in a heartbeat if he wasn’t dating someone.”, said Shouyou, meaning every word.

After that point Kei would be found aggressively cuddling Shouyou whenever Akiteru was around and the cuddling became even more aggressive when Akiteru had broken up with his then girlfriend. Yamaguchi swore he once heard Kei growl a bit when Akiteru had ruffled Shouyou hair when the First Years had gone to Kei’s house for a study session. They all (other than Shouyou who was oblivious to the entire situation) heaved a sigh of relief when Akiteru finally started dating Saeko. But then it became worse when both Akiteru _and_ Saeko would dote on Shouyou. Yamaguchi and Kageyama often wondered how Kei didn’t have high blood pressure with the amount of worrying that he did about his boyfriend getting stolen away from him but the situation did make Kei dote even more on the little fluffball and if Shouyou was happy then Kei was happy so they assumed it was a win-win situation.

P.S. In case you were wondering, Yamaguchi managed to get a certain blue-eyed volleyball idiot to ask him out.

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to make it clear that Tsukishima doesn't realize that Hinata is taking him seriously and the moment he does, he goes and apologizes. He is not intentionally trying to hurt his feelings in any way. Hope you like this fic!


End file.
